All About Greed

"[T]he NCAA, through all of their summits, hasn't accomplished anything tobenefit the student athlete. People who say that one year of collegeenhances your life are blowing smoke up their butt. The same NCAA thatsupposedly takes a higher moral ground on education is now allowingconferences like the Big Ten and the SEC to form their own TV networks totelecast the events of these so called amateurs and they continuously usethem to make money. They pretend (to be) institutions of higher educationbut it's all about greed."

Ah, the ring of truth. It has a nice ring. And vulgarity-loving UD is evenmore pleased when Sonny Vaccaro, "one of the most famous movers and shakersin the history of the sport... who built a national reputation forattracting and building lasting, influential relationships with the bestplayers to his elite summer shoe camps and tournaments," tells the NCAA it'sblowing smoke up its butt.

Vaccaro's annoyed by the NCAA's new 19-and-under rule[2]which mainly serves to keep great players out of the professional game for ayear while they hang around some college waiting to be older.

"I was hoping these kids would leave after one year [the best players havedone just that -- left college immediately on professional eligibility]because it proved a point - that colleges will take a kid for one year, oneday, one month, one game. If you can be eligible to play in the Final Four, there is not a coach in America who wouldn't take you and there's not aschool in America who wouldn't let you in. This is where the problem lies.The problem lies in the schism between the amateurs and professionals. If(NBA commissioner) David Stern wants to delay a player's entrance and he canget the Players' Association to agree with it, I can't find any fault withhim. This is a business. What I don't accept is the continuation of the NCAAhiding behind the morality - this forum they have - of promoting the idea ofenhancing the student athlete. This has nothing to do with the studentathlete. If they were sincere about a student athlete, they would oppose thefreshman eligibility rule and would make every student entering capable ofbeing eligible and doing college work by their second year in college. Thenthey would have a student athlete playing amateur games. They won't do thatbecause of scholarship limits, TV commitments and the likelihood that ...players ... would probably go to Europe and not go to college at all."

As you know, UD believes bigtime college sports will change only with theimplosion of the sun. But that shouldn't keep you from understanding thetruth about it. Vaccaro is planning a college speaking tour. Grab him.